Dead and Dying
by SETI-fan
Summary: Bubblegum's thoughts waiting for Marceline to wake up in the finale of "Stakes".
**Trying to finish up a bunch of small WiPs I have on my computer. So, here's something that came to me while watching the amazing Stakes miniseries. It's been way too long since I wrote for these girls. I've missed them.**

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Bonnibel knew intellectually that this was part of becoming a vampire. It wasn't just the bite. The transition wasn't instantaneous. There was…what came after.

And the wait.

Still, even if she should have expected it from the moment she saw the vampire essence's fangs pierce Marceline's neck, it didn't quite prepare her emotionally for the reality of it.

Standing with her Candy People, Finn, and Jake, shading Marceline's limp body as they gazed down expectantly, she found the details of the change more painful than they logically should have been. Marceline had been a vampire as long as Bonnibel had known her, after all. She knew what that meant had to have happened in the past.

But then, when had she ever been good at being logical around Marceline?

No, regardless of the outcome, the fact of the matter was, becoming a vampire meant you had to die.

Marceline's undead characteristics had never shocked Bonnibel. They were simply part of who she was, and Bonnibel had never been one to flinch from the morbid. Having no breath or pulse or body heat was simply a matter of scientific intrigue, nothing more.

But everything had changed. For several days, Marceline had been truly, genuinely alive. Bonnibel could remember her grey skin feeling warm to the touch for the first time, her breath panting and cheeks flushing when she exerted herself, her euphoric craze at tasting food again. And Bonnibel also remembered seeing her veins stand out venom-green against her skin, feeling the pulse she had only recently regained fade slowly under her fingertips, skin too fever-warm to the touch.

And now, seeing Marceline lie motionless, her body heat cooling against the grass, chest still once more and no blood seeping from the fresh holes in her neck, Bonnibel knew it would never be the same again.

Before, she was dead. Now, she had died. And somehow there was a profound difference in those two realities.

The wait stretched on. Bonnibel wasn't sure how long it had been, since every minute felt like hours for her. Apparently it was long enough that the Candy People behind her had begun murmuring awkwardly to each other, unsure what to do now. Old habit whispered her to take charge, but she had no desire to break her vigil.

"Uh, how long does this usually take?" Jake asked, clearly getting a little tired trying to maintain his umbrella shape over Marceline.

"I'm not sure," Bonnibel said. "I've never been present for a turning before. Besides, this might not have been a normal turning thing either."

"I mean, it bit her, right?" Finn said, looking up with those eyes that still held a young boy's fear in them despite how much he had grown recently. "It was kind of inside out, but she is going to wake up, isn't she?"

"Of course she is, Finn," Bonnibel assured, resting a hand on his shoulder.

It was false confidence, though. She thought the transformation happened faster too. Maybe this was different. Maybe the not-yet-explained-by-science thing that Marceline had done meant that the cloud of vampire essence had delivered the bite, but not been able to follow through on actually making her a vampire. Or maybe it hadn't wanted to turn her, just to—

But no. Her skin had blistered in the sun. She would come back.

Bonnibel could wait.

"Wake up, Marcy," she whispered, even if she knew that hadn't worked before.

Slowly, she realized the shadows under the umbrella seemed to be darkening. Something subtly shifted in Marceline's face and suddenly her eyes snapped open, blazing red, then vampiric blue.

The Candy People jerked back with a gasp. It was a credit to Jake that although he whimpered, he didn't stop blocking the sun for an instant.

Marceline squeezed her eyes shut against the glare outside her circle of shadow and raised one hand to her forehead with a groan. When she squinted her eyes open again to look around, they were back to her natural color.

Bonnibel watched her intentionally draw a breath to have the air to speak. "Well, that sucked."

"Marcy? Are you…still you?" Finn asked, crouching beside her carefully.

"Yeah, I'm me." She sat up, sighing as she reached up to feel her throat. "Same old me again."

The Candy People erupted in cheers behind them, oblivious to the tragedy taking place before them. Bonnibel walked over as Finn fidgeted as Jake extended his legs to support himself over Marceline.

"You okay?" Finn asked, clearly not sure how to react to everything.

"Yeah." She shrugged. "At least the Vampire King's gone for good now, huh?"

Finn's face brightened then. "Yeah! Seriously though, Marce, that was the most algebraic thing I've ever seen."

"Yeah, dude, you took a serious whiz in his biz!" Jake grinned.

"Heh. It was pretty rad, huh?" Marceline agreed, smiling a bit.

She looked up at Bonnibel with a half-grin that didn't reach her eyes and Bonnibel knew she was going to apologize or try to make it all a joke or something and she wasn't about to let her do that.

Before Marceline could say a word, Bonnibel had dropped to her knees and wrapped her in a hug, burying her face in the black hair that was still shorter than she was used to.

"Whoa!" Marceline caught her balance again and put her arms around Bonnibel in return. She wondered if Marceline could feel the shakiness she was trying to hide. Her heightened vampire senses had always been harder to fool.

Bonnibel didn't say anything. She didn't know what she could say. Apologies and condolences and reassurances all felt out of place or insufficient. She didn't care if the entire Candy Kingdom was watching. All she could do was hold on for just a moment and try not to think about how close she had come to never having that opportunity again.

Marceline must have understood, because she whispered softly, "It's okay, Bonnie. It's really okay."

It wasn't, but she let them both pretend that it was. Because to get into it more here would be embarrassing for all involved. In a moment she would pull it together and they would deal with the clean-up, putting aside the fears and emotions as they did what grown-ups had to do and made sure the world was safe again. The rest would happen at its own pace. There was time now. They had infinite time now.

And the one thing Bonnibel would never tell Marceline was how selfishly relieved she was that things had turned out the way they did. Because if there was one thing she had learned over the past few days, it was that she had been lying to herself when this adventure began. She was not at all emotionally ready to have to outlive Marceline and actually watch her die for real.


End file.
